As part of the establishment of a new bill demanded by the government, to improve online safety, the United Kingdom threatens top tech executives with jailif they are hiding information from investigators.
Jail for senior executives?
This text was recently presented to Parliament. This is another important step before the adoption of the law. The United Kingdom has decided to pull out all the stops to encourage tech giants to collaborate with the competent authorities. Indeed, under this bill, we understand that senior executives of technology companies could be sentenced to prison if they do not meet the requirements of regulatorsin particular Ofcom (Federal office of the communication), the equivalent of Arcom in the United Kingdom (the new French policeman of audio-visual).
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The latest bill presented to parliament a few days ago stipulates that senior executives will be subject to criminal prosecution just two months after the bill comes into force (instead of two years, as previously stated). Other offenses have also been added, including the deletion, destruction or alteration of information requested in the context of investigations. Ofcom will also be able to impose fines on companies that do not comply with the regulations of up to 10% of their worldwide turnover or even block access to their services in the United Kingdom.
This bill is debated in the UK
The text is debated in the United Kingdom. According to Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, “This legislation gives politicians too much power to decide what constitutes harmful content without scrutiny. It would be tantamount to censoring legal content with the sanction of the state”. Separately, some UK lawmakers involved in drafting the legislation have been criticized for their lack of expertise. This is particularly the case of the curator Nadine Dorries, who is at the head of the project.
Many observers believe that this bill uses vague language that will make it difficult to apply and could encourage tech companies preventively censor users in order to avoid prosecution. This is particularly the case for content “legal but harmful”. Content that does not constitute a criminal offense (such as racist or abusive language) but which could have a “negative physical or psychological impact” on internet users. Technology platforms are encouraged to introduce new measures to reduce users’ exposure to such content.